NASA recently took another step forward on efforts to send humans beyond the moon. Verification and validation began on the mobile launcher that will be the starting point for a future crew who will venture into deep space.
The mobile launcher is designed to support the assembly, testing and check-out of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft.
“Through this process, our team will verify all the systems are working properly and as designed,” said Brett Raulerson, mobile launcher site integration manager for Engineering Research and Consulting Inc. as part of the Test and Operations Support Contract. “We’re looking forward to starting this next phase of making sure the mobile launcher is ready to support the SLS.”
Original construction was completed in August 2010 and took about two years. In 2013, NASA awarded a contract to J.P. Donovan Construction Inc. of Rockledge, Florida to install crucial ground support equipment on the mobile launcher.
“Now that installation of the ground support equipment is nearing completion, we’ll start dual occupancy to validate that everything meets the design requirements of NASA Engineering and the Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program here at Kennedy,” Raulerson said.
Raulerson explained that the work at the park site, just north of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), is just the first stage of the verification and validation process.
“In the summer of 2017 we will begin phase two when we move the mobile launcher to the VAB,” he said. “This will be a multi-element operation, confirming systems on the mobile launcher work together with systems in the VAB.”
Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston